USA TODAY Sports-MMAjunkie.com MMA Rankings: March 4 edition

Welcome to the debut edition of the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA Rankings.

Each Monday, MMAjunkie.com will publish an updated list of the top 15 fighters, as well as three honorable mentions (in alphabetical order), in the eight primary male weight divisions. The rankings also will appear monthly in the print edition of USA TODAY, beginning with Tuesday’s newspaper.

Additionally, the latest edition of the rankings can soon be found under a new “Rankings” tab in the website header.

USA TODAY Sports and MMAjunkie.com’s full-time staff members collectively produce the rankings each week. Criteria can be found below.

The rankings take into account a fighter’s wins/losses, quality of competition, finishing rate/dominance and frequency of fights.

Fighters are no longer eligible to be ranked after they’ve been inactive for 24 months, either due to injuries, drug/conduct suspensions, contract disputes or self-imposed hiatuses.

Fighters serving drug/conduct suspensions are eligible to be ranked, so long as they’re not inactive for more than 24 months.

To the best of our ability, fighters will be ranked in their primary weight class. Catchweight fights and bouts outside the fighter’s primary weight class can have a positive or negative impact on the ranking. However, fighters can be ranked in only one weight class at a given time, and in most cases, they won’t be ranked in a new weight class until they’ve had their first fight at that weight.

ranking criteria

The rankings take into account a fighter's wins/losses, quality of competition, finishing rate/dominance and frequency of fights.

Fighters are no longer eligible to be ranked after they've been inactive for 24 months, either due to injuries, drug/conduct suspensions, contract disputes or self-imposed hiatuses.

Fighters serving drug/conduct suspensions are eligible to be ranked, so long as they're not inactive for more than 24 months.

To the best of our ability, fighters will be ranked in their primary weight class. Catchweight fights and bouts outside the fighter's primary weight class can have a positive or negative impact on the ranking. However, fighters can be ranked in only one weight class at a given time, and in most cases, they won't be ranked in a new weight class until they've had their first fight at that weight.

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